Monoski! Relearning how to slide on snow

, 7 min, 1337 words

Tags: adventuring national-ability-center

As you may have guessed, I get excited about learning things. Really excited. It should come as no surprise, then, that I got excited about the idea of learning to monoski early on during training at the National Ability Center. I estimate that by day three, I was looking forward to mono training camp.

Mono training camp, or at least an introduction to the monoski, was this week. I've been practicing my sit-skiing ever since. A huge thank you to Mike McBee and Hannah for being awesome instructors filled with knowledge and boundless patience and enthusiasm.

What's a monoski?

To be clear, I'm talking about a style of sit-ski with one ski underneath it. For examples, see here or here.

Happy skier

Happy skier!

And lest you think this a halfhearted attempt to get folks with certain disabilities skiing, check out the videos below. The monoski is badass.

The teaching progression

The typical teaching progression differs from two-track skiing by the fact that you're on one ski, with outriggers. So no wedges or "you can just balance" by default. Roughly speaking:

  1. Fit the ski! This is like fitting ski boots; if the ski doesn't fit you snugly, you're going to have a hard time. Relatedly, fit the outriggers. These need to fit forearm length, forearm diameter, height of the ski, your hands...and they should ideally be in flip-to-crutch mode for absolute beginners.

  2. Get comfortable in the ski on flat ground. Push around with the riggers, play with moving forward and backward. Hint: backward is way easier. Try to make a bowtie/butterfly with your ski by rotating in place. This forces you to feel the flat ski on the ground, and encourages a riggers-forward position, which will be crucial later on.

    • In my case, as soon as I got into the mono, I forgot that I was capable of sitting still without falling over. There's a ski under you, and if you can find where it's flat, you shouldn't need your riggers to keep you upright. PRACTICE THIS. Seriously.

  1. Do some straight runs to a terrain or instructor stop. My first straight run was just a torso-propelled inching exercise on totally flat ground. And I felt awesome when I did it. Then we progressed to straight runs on a slight slope, with the amazing Hannah catching me at the end. At this point I accidentally made my first turn, during an unassisted straight run when I realized I was about to go flying down to the magic carpets. I didn't really think about it, and it worked! I was delighted. Good thing, too, because turns wouldn't come easily to me.

  2. Start working on turns to a stop. With just one ski, the only ways to stop are to fall over (unpleasant) or turn to a stop. A turn in the mono is guided by torso position, outrigger angle, and nebulous other components that just feel right. Furthermore, as an able-bodied skier, I will control my turn in a different way from someone who doesn't have their hips, abs, etc. Every student will be different.

  3. Either before or after (4), work on getting back up after a fall. This is a tricky process. The best example of this I've seen online is at 10:55 of this video. If you're lying on your right side, as in the video, here's how it goes:

    1. Rotate until the ski is downhill of your body, just like in two-track skiing.
    2. Let go of the grip of your right outrigger and use your knuckles to push yourself up and away from the ground. Focus on lifting your hips rather than your torso.
    3. Use your left outrigger (in crutch mode) to continue lifting your hips away from the ground.
    4. Magically (seriously, this step is extra tricky) give an extra little push with your left rigger and somehow get your hand back on your right rigger, using both to push up until you're able to stabilize yourself normally, with one outrigger on each side.

  4. ...profit? To be honest I haven't gotten past here, so come back later for more info.

Alternatively, check out this comprehensive guide to teaching monoskiers.

The learning process

Here has been my learning process so far:

Day one: Go through steps 1-3 and start working on those turns. Spend a fair amount of time on the ground, but mostly don't worry about getting back up. Since I'm lucky enough to have motor function in my legs, I can just unstrap myself from the ski and get out, then reset upright. By the end of a few hours, I was able to turn, though I fell around 50% of the time.

Day two: Get out there and practice skills from day one, continue to work on turns in the monoski. My success rate on these dropped precipitously to about 20%, and I was incredibly frustrated at my inability to stay upright in a turn. At one point I had five fabulous wipeouts in a single lap of the magic carpet. I also failed to load the magic carpet and ended up sitting on it sideways for a bit before it stopped, and generally felt less competent than when I'd started. On the plus side, I was blown away (and slightly embarrassed) by the number of people who offered to help me out with getting up after a fall or loading the magic carpet. Turns out people are usually pretty nice if you give them the chance.

Day three: I had a major breakthrough today, though I'm still not sure what caused it. By the end of the afternoon, I was making linked turns and loading the magic carpet successfully, and I couldn't be prouder. Guesses on what made the difference:

  • I watched lots of videos of awesome monoskiers, which was both inspiring and educational to the visual learner side of me.

  • I got an overwhelming amount of advice and support from fellow NAC folks. Advice included use my legs less, look downhill, riggers forward, don't sweat the small stuff, "just fall less" (thanks, Dale), ignore angulation…

  • I used a new pair of outriggers that fit me pretty well.

  • I strapped myself into the monoski with two straps instead of one. Relatedly, I accepted people's help during step (4) of getting back up after a fall, which helped me spend more time skiing and less time writhing on the ground in frustration.

In summary

Basically, monoskiing is awesome, and I am so excited that I work in a place where I have the support and equipment to learn it. I'm really excited to continue learning, both for my own gratification and so I can teach monoskiers in the future!